Hobart

The Standard (Hobart) verdict: 8.5/10

Beef Burger: 8.5/10

Chicken Burger: 7/10

Sides: 8/10

So why The Standard?

He says: Faced with a weekend away in stunning Hobart with a special group of friends it would be a tragedy if we didn’t check out what was on offer burger wise. Blog investigations and personal recommendations lead us to this place with the advice that we were in for some cracking burgers.

She says: We eat burgers wherever we go and sometimes it can be a not so positive experience (check out the Wambi Whopper if you dare). I have to admit, underestimated Hobart’ ability to offer up such a cool burger experience. The ads for Tassie are all mountains and nature, cheese and wine, but the Standard is pretty cool and hip. Tucked into a back alley, behind another less-cool milk bar style burger shop (poor guys) and off a main street, you kind of have to seek it out. And the décor is effortlessly cool, the ceiling is covered with paper light-shades and it is more of a burger bar than a restaurant.

What did you order?

Cowboy burger – $11

Los Pollos Hermanos burger – $12

Animal Fries – $10

Chicken Popplers – $7

Oreo Malted Shake – $8

Tell us about the Cowboy Burger?

He says: We were going to devour the regular Standard burger but the lovely staff recommended this bad boy. Incredibly flavoursome patty well cooked that was well complimented by tasty bacon, pickles cheese and mayo. The onions were perhaps a little on the sweet side for my taste but this is a wonderful burger and that is a minor gripe.

She says: This burger wouldn’t be for everyone. The patty is super thin and cooked through. Kind of like the Five Guys patties I tried that time I was in New York There. There is a generous layer of pickles and the cheese and mayo played their part well. It was a very compact burger so if you are looking for heft, this wouldn’t be for you. But I liked it.

So then, how did you find the Los Pollos Hermanos Burger?

He says: The actual fried chicken involved in this was bordering on perfection but the combo of blue cheese and red hot sauce made it incredibly rich and harder to get through. Not sure if I’m a massive fan of blue cheese on a burger so we really only have ourselves to blame. My friend Neil a member of this country’s fried chicken cognoscenti went for another less rich chicken burger (the Reverse Cowgirl) and proclaimed it to be the “best burger he’s had in his life”. Next time I’m having what he had.

She says:I reckon this was just a poor choice on our part. Blue cheese and Frank’s Hot sauce tastes like a spicy sock. I think people should choose one or the other, but not both. The chicken was great in and of itself but next time I too would order the atrociously named ‘Reverse Cowgirl’ (really guys??).

Now, what about the sides?

She says:More weirdness – the weirdest weird actually – the Chicken Poppers. They were these strange giant chicken nugget type things were filled with what can only be described as chicken extender – very strange, not terrible but I definitely wouldn’t be interested in more than a bite (okay perhaps with a hangover these would work – the same way a oven cooked fish finger seems like a viable choice after a night on the cans). But don’t worry, because the animal fries swooped on in to save the day. They were so so rich, salty and doused in a tangy cheesy sauce. The bacon jam escorted them swiftly acorss the line them to bad/good, wrong/right territory.

He says: The animal fries so fucking good they’re almost worth the heart attack they’d no doubt engineer if you ate them on a regular basis. I’d put them right up there with my personal favourite at Dr. Faustus. The malted oreo shake tasted as good as it sounded. The Chicken Popplers were just plain weird. Like a chicken nugget with strange processed dim sim type chicken meat. Not sure what they were going for with this but it was about the only thing I strongly disagreed with in our brief and otherwise delicious visit.

A Note on Our Verdicts

We try and sample a beef burger, a non-beef burger and a side. We score each out of 10 and then give a final verdict. For our final verdict, we take into account where we think the restaurant should sit on our Leader Board, which is why sometimes the verdict isn't exactly the average of the three, scores.